South African Airways’ new interim chief executive Thomas Kgokolo says that the embattled national carrier has begun official discussions to resume operations.<\/p>\n
In a SABC interview on Monday (19 April), Kgokolo said that the airline will soon start the process of retraining its pilots and ensuring that compliance requirements are met.<\/p>\n
SAA has been unprofitable for almost a decade, surviving on state bailouts and government debt guarantees, and was placed under administration a year ago.<\/p>\n
The carrier has been lying dormant since March 2020, when the fleet was grounded due to travel bans to contain the Covid-19 coronavirus.<\/p>\n
However, Kgokolo said that the business rescue process has now ‘come through’ and identified the key financial and operational challenges for the airline.<\/p>\n
He added that a number of expenses have been cut down, including employee costs through retrenchments, meaning that the new airline will be significantly ‘leaner’.<\/p>\n
However, Kgokolo acknowledged the difficulties in restarting the airline during a global pandemic which has caused untold damage to the airline sector.<\/p>\n
“Our view is that we are much smaller than before, so we are going to be spending a lot of time (as part of) our restart plan looking at operational efficiency from a cost perspective.<\/p>\n
“We will also be looking at the type of aircraft we use going forward to ensure that they are fuel-efficient. We will also (launch) a decent marketing campaign to ensure that as we come back online our loyal customers can use us again.<\/p>\n
Kgokolo said that this restart will not be easy and that the new SAA will not do things the same way it did in the past.<\/p>\n
He said that some of the immediate concerns which the restart plan will address include:<\/p>\n